Rain. It feels like it hasn’t stopped raining in months. Every couple of days our new spring weather is ruined by another oncoming storm. The clouds roll in and I can feel it in my chest even before the water starts to fall. Sometimes I look up and the clouds are so heavy that I’m sure with a sharp needle and a tall enough ladder, I could pop the cloud balloons and let the water wash away Nashville.

I know the rain is good for the grass and the flowers (that I have still managed to kill) and the earth, but it only seems to rain on the days I have big “out-door” plans. Rain is a necessary part of life, I get it, we need the rain, but does it always have to rain on me? Does it always have to feel like the clouds are conspiring against me and when they sense I least expect it, open up and destroy my life?

You say, “well that’s a bit dramatic (and you wouldn’t be wrong)” but can’t it rain when I’m ready for it to rain? Couldn’t the storm wait until I say go? (or could it at least keep my flowers from dying!!!)

This week I’m going to talk about control and my endless struggle with it. Because that’s really what it’s all about. At the end of the day, I always have a plan for how I would like things to happen, but the clouds don’t care about my plans and do what is necessary to keep the world from drying out. I can hate the clouds (which I’m close to doing) or I can give up control.

You’re probably saying, “Whoa, yeah right! I work hard to keep my life from falling off the tracks. I spend hours making what I believe are the best plans of action so that I am happy, content, and satisfied.”

Guess what, me too. The problem is that regardless, rain is going to come. I have spent years, hating this one, simple, undeniable fact. I let that frustration and anger make me miserable when there was absolutely nothing I could do to change the situation in front of me. Then one day I was too tired to fight against the storm anymore.

So I stopped. And when the rain ceased something amazing happened; the sun came back out, the flowers around me started blooming (well not at my house) the grass turned a beautiful shade of green, birds started singing, life continued after the storm.

I was living in Nashville the spring it rained so heavily that if flooded the city. I watched while a house was pulled from its foundation and floated down one of our main interstates. When that storm came it ruined lives, but it was incredible to watch the people of this great city come together as a force to be reckoned with.

Nobody planned to lose their home, nobody planned to lose all their belongings, nobody planned to have to deal with the repercussions of something so tragic. But the storm came anyways, and out of the horrific event people survived. They joined together, they leaned on one another and eventually beautiful things began to grow.

I’m not saying don’t make plans, or even not to plan for the worst, I’m just saying that life will happen without your opinion, and sometime when the rain comes it can throw us for a loop. But it also can produce some beautiful stuff.

So make your plans, but understand they are only one option of many that can occur. If you fill your life with people that love you, trust and believe in yourself and you will have nothing to worry about. Time for a cliché (I know you have been waiting for it) just roll with the punches baby. Everything does eventually work itself out, and sometimes better than you could have hoped for.

So next time the rain clouds are spread as far as the eye can see above your head, relax, breathe and pull out your umbrella (mine, as you know, will be purple) and let the rain fall. Because regardless of how much you curse the sky and beg the clouds to go away, chances are it’s still gonna rain.